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Chyist Dec 11, 1998 C
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========================================================================= Date: Fri, 11 Dec 1998 09:39:33 +0100
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> From: Michael Friedewald <friedewald@HISTECH.RWTH-AACHEN.DE>
Subject: Bill Gates on Free Software
In-Reply-To: <199812110528.AAA27368@mail.acm.org> Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
______________________________________________________________________
Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
=46olks,
I think we have to talk a bit more sober about Gates turn from free to commercial software.
1) Sure, BASIC was free from the very first day. But remember Kemeny and Kurtz implemented the first version on a General Electric Mainframe with lots of memory, far more than the first micros had. Then the language itself was free not the implementation on a specif=EDc hardware.
2) I believe it's not only rumor that Paul Allen implemented the first Altair BASIC on Harvard's PDP-10. But not the implementation was illegal, but only to use Harvard's machine for commercial purposes.
3) There was really an urgent need for software in the mid-1970s. As far as I understand the whole microcomputer-kit movement almost collapsed because there was virtually _no_ software available. See Portia Isaacson's monthly "Personal Computing" articles in Datamation in 1975/76.
4) Gates' reason for writing his letter wasn't realated to free/commercial software. Some hobbyists stole the tape with the BASIC interpreter (still buggy) and made copies for free distribution because many of them had paid money for memory extension boards that MITS could not deliver for months and months. It was always said that taking the BASIC interpreter was a compensation for this "injustice". That's why Gates insists that Micro-Soft was _not_ a part of MITS...
I suggest to read: P. Ceruzzi. "From Scientific Instrument to Everyday Appliance: The Emergence of Personal Computers, 1970-1977." History and Technology, Vol. 13, No. 1, 1996, pp. 1-32.
By the way: I'm a Mac user myself ;-)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------= -
Michael Friedewald
Lehrstuhl fuer Geschichte der Technik
(Institute for the History of Technology) Rheinisch-Westfaelische Technische Hochschule Aachen Kopernikusstrasse 16
D-52074 Aachen
Germany
Voice : +49 241 80-6654
FAX : +49 241 8888-302
E-Mail: friedewald@histech.rwth-aachen.de
m.friedewald@ieee.org
m.friedewald@acm.org
www : http://www.histech.rwth-aachen.de
______________________________________________________________________
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> From: Michael Friedewald <friedewald@HISTECH.RWTH-AACHEN.DE>
Subject: Bill Gates on Free Software
In-Reply-To: <199812110528.AAA27368@mail.acm.org> Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
______________________________________________________________________
Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
=46olks,
I think we have to talk a bit more sober about Gates turn from free to commercial software.
1) Sure, BASIC was free from the very first day. But remember Kemeny and Kurtz implemented the first version on a General Electric Mainframe with lots of memory, far more than the first micros had. Then the language itself was free not the implementation on a specif=EDc hardware.
2) I believe it's not only rumor that Paul Allen implemented the first Altair BASIC on Harvard's PDP-10. But not the implementation was illegal, but only to use Harvard's machine for commercial purposes.
3) There was really an urgent need for software in the mid-1970s. As far as I understand the whole microcomputer-kit movement almost collapsed because there was virtually _no_ software available. See Portia Isaacson's monthly "Personal Computing" articles in Datamation in 1975/76.
4) Gates' reason for writing his letter wasn't realated to free/commercial software. Some hobbyists stole the tape with the BASIC interpreter (still buggy) and made copies for free distribution because many of them had paid money for memory extension boards that MITS could not deliver for months and months. It was always said that taking the BASIC interpreter was a compensation for this "injustice". That's why Gates insists that Micro-Soft was _not_ a part of MITS...
I suggest to read: P. Ceruzzi. "From Scientific Instrument to Everyday Appliance: The Emergence of Personal Computers, 1970-1977." History and Technology, Vol. 13, No. 1, 1996, pp. 1-32.
By the way: I'm a Mac user myself ;-)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------= -
Michael Friedewald
Lehrstuhl fuer Geschichte der Technik
(Institute for the History of Technology) Rheinisch-Westfaelische Technische Hochschule Aachen Kopernikusstrasse 16
D-52074 Aachen
Germany
Voice : +49 241 80-6654
FAX : +49 241 8888-302
E-Mail: friedewald@histech.rwth-aachen.de
m.friedewald@ieee.org
m.friedewald@acm.org
www : http://www.histech.rwth-aachen.de
______________________________________________________________________
